


Red Hue

by Pamphylia



Category: Doom (Video Games)
Genre: Blood, Doom 2016 prequel???, Human Samuel, Idk what genre this will be in, May Or May Not Be Continued, TW: Gore and Death, This is just attempted horror and me failing miserably, Young Olivia - Freeform, dont fuckin bully lmao, missing people??, tw: cancer
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:14:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27795958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pamphylia/pseuds/Pamphylia
Summary: How Olivia Pierce and Samuel Hayden came to be.
Kudos: 1





	Red Hue

**Author's Note:**

> This is my own take of a Doom 2016 prequel, because frankly, I kind of wondered what exactly motivated Olivia to be who she is, and I also wanted to take a dive at human Hayden.
> 
> This is not canon or a self-insert in any way, this is my interpretation. If you don’t like, then don’t read. 
> 
> (This is just shitty horror)
> 
> This may contain spoilers for the Ancient Gods: Part 1 DLC, and with that disclaimer out of the way, please enjoy this work, which is super fuckin long (it May or May not be continued).
> 
> \- Pamphylia/hellsinrepublica

**INTRODUCTION**

The sun rose unlike any other, bathing the large mountains aglow. The dust particles that flowed out of the ground sparkled in the shining light, the reflective panels of the base shone so bright, it nearly made one of the researchers blind. It was a sight to behold at the distance where Olivia Pierce was standing. Inside the UAC research base, dedicated to finding Argent for a new future for humanity. In awe as the wind started to blow southeast, about twenty-five miles, from the best of her vision. She clutches her portfolio as well as her paperwork in what seems to be her only sources. The reflection of the floor-to-ceiling window shows Pierce in a disdained but professional fashion. Watching from the waiting room. Donning a classic, white business suit and tying up her hair in a lazy bun, she also wore a necklace that a friend of hers gave. She breathes softly, showing no emotion about her new position in the UAC. But only on the inside did her mind scream with excitement and glee, happy that she has made it so far in her middle-aged years. She knew Strasbourg was the best place to earn her degree.

Olivia smiles softly for a short moment, then returns to her usual neutral personality, carelessly listening to the random banters from the hologram of the UAC spokesman. Randomly thinking about what she had done on Earth, what it led to. What she did to earn it. She’s internally laughing at all the bigots who had defied her state of learning what is right and wrong. Truly, the woman is impressed with what was provided to her. She smiles again. This is the first time Olivia has been to Mars, she decides to store in every memory she could create. 

In a more hospitable note, Olivia is given a big position as the head of the Lazarus labs. She doesn't know why, but she’ll follow any order she’ll get. All for the name of science and preservation.

“ _ Dr. Olivia Pierce, please report to Dr. Samuel Hayden’s office effective immediately,”  _ blared the female robotic voice from above. That was her cue. She knew who Samuel was back on Earth, in her honest opinion, she seemed like a serious man who needed a serious break. He always worked in his office or in the Argent Tower, during their time in college, Olivia was told that Hayden never attended any parties or ceremonies, often stuck in his cinema doing god-knows-what. She remembers her brief conversations with him fondly, he’s a man that’s hard to get. Or just pushes everyone away. Aside from that, he is a tolerable scientist to work with. He was near, anyway.

Heading towards his office, meeting a couple of new researchers in the way, she managed to meet at his front door. Unbeknownst to what Hayden was going to say to her. He is an old friend of hers, after all. However it seems like it was always professional between the two, Olivia hoped that Samuel would open up to her eventually. Samuel is the reason she was here in the first place. To help him. It felt strange that he would come to her instead of anyone else. The door opened, and in front of her was Dr. Samuel Hayden, the Head of UAC Mars, the Project Director of the Argent Facility. He’s a lot shorter than Olivia had remembered, finally realizing it’s her heels making her look taller. He looked overworked, but awake nonetheless. Maybe Samuel took too many cups of coffee. 

Olivia let go of her stern demeanor and smiled at him, “It’s great to see you again, Samuel,” 

Samuel’s reply was firm, “The same goes to you, Olivia. How is everything in the Lazarus Labs? I take it you had no problems?” Samuel questioned, Olivia answered with a light “Yes. I did-,” His sudden heaving led Olivia to become worrisome. Samuel had the awkward tendency to randomly cough as he strode to his desk, letting out small tears in the process. Olivia set down her crammed research and headed to Samuel, who already sat down, “Samuel, you’re coughing uncontrollably. Are you alright?” 

“I am fine, Olivia. It’s just the red dust,” he said to her, coughing out a bit more, and then saying, “The Argent Tower is going well, soon the people on earth will use this new source we found on this planet,” Hayden looked out the window, the Argent Tower, already looking tall, was almost finished. She could see the bright red light towering the sky, piercing the clouds in a circular motion. Olivia softened her eyes, “Argent Energy is the peak of mankind’s survival without fossil fuels, but, it’s rare,” 

Samuel chuckled rather harshly, “You’re right, but we can renew it if given the chance. I highly suspect that there may be other areas containing Argent. For now we’ll work with what we have,” he told her, Olivia cleared her throat, “It’ll fill everyone’s pockets with what you’ve discovered,” 

“True,” he said, rather calmly, “But the guards get irritated by the median pay,”

“You should raise their paycheck, then,”

“Maybe later,” He said, “I only wanted you to see our progress. What we have come to so far,” Olivia nodded, this was correct. “Your research in the university proved to be useful to me. I figured you’d be of great help,” his words were firm but reassuring to her, and she took it with a grain of salt. Recalling the one time Samuel needed help on his essay during college, and he went to her only. He looked more naive during their days of college, despite them both attending different schools. Of course, the near decade-long gap of the two individuals was coming to a close. Olivia would make sure that her and Samuel would occasionally have a couple of meetings, to catch up with the old times they used to share. 

“An adequate call, Hayden,” Olivia smirked at him confidently, “Has anyone ever told you you’re a man of divine words?” Samuel didn't laugh at that one, “Many, yes. I’m going to the Argent Tower, it’s almost finished,” he randomly said, standing up almost slowly, he started to act more suspicious towards her. “Samuel, you haven’t been acting the same,” she informed him, Samuel was already at his door, and he looked at her with a neutral expression, “Like I said earlier, It’s the dust,” the man waved off, “I’ll be in the Argent Tower if you need me,” and he left. 

It was strange to see Samuel like this, especially when he left her alone, but all's well that ends well, obviously. Olivia can only think about her position as she sits in his office, grabbing her composure and heading to the Lazarus Labs. Surely everything would be a lot more special there. Of course, it would be a lot more special. She breathes deeply and prepares for her future.

————————————————————————

**SPECULATION**

Tireless months passed, years went by, everything was going well, her professional relationship with Samuel was still intact and her friendships with the other employees had been great. The Argent Tower was finished now, and the flowing of Argent Energy. Samuel was a lot more happy than before, getting the justified praise he deserved, meeting with a lot of people. The co-founders, quite possibly, Olivia caught a glimpse of one of them when she headed to the break room. They wore a nice-looking suit, and carried nothing. She assumes they’re a tourist, or a businessperson wanting to get hired by Hayden, she highly doubts they’ll get in. 

Olivia remembers the small conversations between Hayden and the businessperson, it was discreet, and she could almost smell the sarcasm coming out of her colleague. The middle-aged woman finally sees the businessperson leave in a terrible mood, bidding Hayden to, in his words, “go to hell,” and for some reason, the word “hell,” made his behavior angry in the blink of an eye. Hayden didn’t fight back and wished him a good day, and he left. A prime example of how Samuel is a man of divine words and experience, not divine charisma. It doesn't matter, she doesn't care, and never will be. But she comes to wonder, why are there people coming in to the UAC already? 

In the breakroom, where most of her smoking happens, she encounters another colleague. She was a nice lady, and worked as an engineer, but only fixed the elevators whenever they were down. A rookie is Pierce’s best impression of her. The engineer waves at her cheerily, Olivia smiles, the young woman says, “And here I thought I was the only one,” 

Olivia takes a long drag of her cigarette, replying, “What makes you believe that?”, puffing out smoke. “I used to come here alone, I’m a big socialite,” The young engineer says as she sits down next to Olivia. Grabbing a cigarette from her breast pocket, her jumpsuit was extremely dirty, and as Olivia got a closer look, so was her face and her hair. Streaks of blonde mixed with black smoke stuck out of her bun, “Lighter?” She asked, Olivia obliged. Lighting up her cigarette immediately. 

“I assume you’re new here,” Olivia tells her, “Just started a couple months ago. The work is hard but the pay is good, least I don’t smell like literal shit,” she says. Olivia looks at her for a moment, somehow feeling a little weirded out by her demeanor. But then again, Olivia was like her when she was younger, “So what’s on your mind?”

Olivia shakes her head, “Not a lot, just loads of paperwork,” the engineer laughed, “Just like any corporation,” she says, taking another drag. “I can only guess we’re going somewhere, one way or the other,”

The engineer smirks in a childish way, she blows the smoke caught in her mouth, and Olivia wonders about Hayden. How he’s cold towards other people, but not towards his employers, “Hayden must have a field day with all the new interviews coming up,” the engineer said to her, Olivia nods, “Yes, many of them. Don’t know why,” she replied. The engineer stops smoking, and after a short but awkward moment, the naive woman asks, “He hasn’t told you?” Olivia says a sharp, “Yes,”

“Jesus…,” The Engineer says, “People have been missing a lot the past few months.. Nobody knows why, other than they’re turning up dead. It’s been a real mess these days. Back then, everything was normal,” She catches Olivia’s attention now, “I hear one of the other engineers found a body somewhere outside. He told me that he looked really happy, despite saying, ‘All of his guts looked like spaghetti and shit,’. Nobody did an investigation, and the body is still out there. But, last night, it disappeared. He wanted to give a burial, and-,” 

“I don’t need too much information, thank you,” Olivia interrupted, clearly disgusted by the mental image in her head. The alarm on Olivia’s watch rang soon after, she groaned, “My time is up, I have to get back,” the older woman quietly said, already standing up and heading out, but the Engineer grabbed the sleeve of her lab coat, “Hey, don’t take it too personally, only a couple went missing. It’s not that big of a deal,” Olivia yanked her arm out of her grasp, the dark stains on her sleeve were visible, but small. Olivia looks at the girl, and leaves the break room. Already wanting some sort of distraction from the words clouding her brain.

Days later, Olivia began to notice a small tension among the workers.

One of them, a researcher, started to act suspicious towards Argent. A man, bald and wearing the same lab coat as her. In most aspects, he was an astute researcher, he kept to himself, worked on what he needed to work on, and only talked to a handful of other people. He didn’t focus on anything else, from what she has heard, and he didn’t seem to care about the likes of anyone. The key difference is his kind mood. Occasionally, the researcher would bring in coffee for his group, help the others on their paperwork, even give advice to those who need confidence in their lives. To the people of UAC Mars, he was the only person that made sure no one would make a fool out of themselves. It’s good to have a personality like that. It almost makes her want a hug from him. But she doesn’t want to ruin the fiasco.

The big change of subject came the day he was caught staring at Argent flowing in front of his window, like it hypnotized him, Pierce came to check in a lot earlier to give him a nice meal to pay for all of his passionate deeds to the employees. But his workplace wasn’t the greatest sight to see, although most places in this facility weren’t. She was too confused to conjure up a single sentence in her mouth or her brain, his area, scattered with illustrations of the energy’s flow in front of him, the symbols in the paper detailing nothing but incomprehensible gibberish, and yet, Olivia somehow understood it. She nearly dropped her carefully cooked meal, and finally whispered, “What is this? What have you been doing?” He stared at the energy’s flowing beacon as she said this. He never blinked.

His attention was never caught by her voice, she spoke louder, “Ian. What is all this? What are these illustrations?” The researcher still kept staring at Argent. She called out again for the third time, “Ian!”

No answer. Nothing in return. He only left, saying, “Just place it on the table,”. Olivia became irritated as he was isolating himself from her, picking up his illustrations and setting them on the table, as well as placing his meal next to the small pile. Pierce is suspecting he has something to do with the missing people. Her brows furrow as she looks at the illustrations one last time. They weren’t special, but the questionable writing certainly had her attention. 

“I believe Dr. Davidson is acting suspicious…” Olivia said to Hayden, they were walking together towards the entryway of his office, “He wasn’t acting the same as before, he used to be so kind towards everyone. Ian has been ignoring everyone, but it was strange,” she told him. Hayden looked at her with his classic neutral expression, “He’s been doing the same to me as well,” Samuel replied, “I can already speculate Davidson is constantly obsessed with Argent,” 

“It has been helping with Humanity on a great level,” 

Hayden stopped in the middle of their way, and clutched the side of his head with his right hand, letting out a small groan of pain, “What’s wrong?” Olivia asked him, putting a hand on his shoulder, Hayden’s brows tightened, “I feel dizzy. Nauseous. My head is starting to hurt,” he said, another painful groan came out of him. Pierce retorted, “We should go to the infirmary,” but Hayden shook his head, a no. “It’s the coffee,” he spat out, and headed to his office. Olivia felt extremely off about his behavior towards him.

Two days went by quicker than intended, and Olivia can hear the obsessive bickering from Ian. It was a late hour, the stars twinkled and the moons were almost visible. Davidson walked to and fro, chattering to himself almost crazily, smiling like a psycho, and Olivia, walking to her room to call it a day, noticed this. Ian looked up at her with the happiest face he could ever conjure up, and for no reason, Olivia wasn’t comfortable with it. He beamed at her, “Olivia! It’s nice to meet you!” 

“You say that as if we haven’t seen each other in years,” Olivia says, Ian laughs at her, it sounds different, “I guess you could say that, Lily” The woman’s eyes squinted at him, an annoyed look, “My name isn’t Lily, Dr. Davidson,” 

“Just a nickname for you,”

“I see, don’t call me that,”

The researcher shrugs, “Your loss,” he says. But Olivia isn’t with the aura he’s getting at, she questions him, “Ian, you’ve been strange lately. Everyone noticed, Hayden noticed. Does this have anything to do with any missing people?” His head shakes after a brief second, “No, I haven’t heard anything about the missing workers,” Ian smiles at her weirdly. “Then why have you been so obsessed with Argent?” She asks. He begins to chuckle, and then gives her a sharp look, it was surprisingly calm to her, “You’re funny, Pierce. If you think about it, Argent is such a mysterious force, is it not? The way it flows and powers and shows itself is so tantalizing I can’t even take my eyes off of it. I nearly got blind due to the sheer intangible colors it produced before my eyes. Can’t you see, Olivia, Argent is beautiful! Like a beautiful woman god has created!” He shouted at her. Olivia’s internal freak out is going haywire as of now.

“The color, the brightness, the images I created in my works, it’s so clear to me, Lily. Look at my eyes, look at how they’ve pleased him!” And she was too dazed to even comprehend the next words Ian told her, “Praise it. Praise Argent. Praise for all the food and glory it has given to you! Look into my eyes, my hands, my tongue, Lily!” Olivia took a long, terrible look at the man. His eyes started turning backwards, the veins pink and rosy from her sight, his tongue sticking out and ripping apart like a pea pod. His hands clawing at her arms, puncturing the fabric of her sleeves, he looked like some type of creature-a monster-some sort of possessed human, this wasn’t Ian at all! Olivia screamed and pushed the unnamable creature away from her, running to god knows where, almost tripping from the heels she’s wearing. She grabbed help from the Guards close to her, but when they arrived to find Ian, he looked as normal as ever. He denied anything Olivia told the guards, and of course, he bid them all good night and left for his workplace. The guards left her alone that night, and Olivia denied her mind’s “trick of the light,” sequence.

Several hours later, Hayden found him around the beam, head and arms decapitated and bleeding out pint after pint of blood. It reached the floor, and his intestines were shown out, his wrist was cut open as well. And the face of the heathen looked content. Olivia nearly vomited at the sight. Hayden… didn’t. It was concluded that he fell from a high place, and they all agreed with it. Everyone cried that day. Ian Davidson was remembered, and buried just in front of the Tower. 

After that, Olivia became more cautious towards other people, including Samuel.

————————————————————————

**SYMPATHY**

Dr. Samuel Hayden worked in the UAC for as long as Olivia could remember, he promoted good deals with many of the co-founders, and as soon as he was the director of the project for Argent, he already began construction of the Tower. But as soon as it was finished, Hayden started getting sick due to being exposed to Argent, and after finding the body of Ian, he was too close to the beam, to where he nearly touched it.

Olivia began to notice his deterioration rather quickly, from walking extremely dizzy and getting painful headaches, he shrugs it off as something in his morning coffee or the red dust from outside, but Pierce knew he was lying. A great intention of his unknown sickness is his random confusion when talking to her, often forgetting his speeches, and even becoming weak to walk. Hayden ignored it completely, only focusing on work, saying, “Process of elimination is key to a better system,” and nothing else. Olivia started to get angry at this statement of his, but decided to leave him be. 

To Hayden, he doesn’t care if he gets sick or not, it wouldn’t stop him from achieving his goals in his life, and the old man wouldn’t sleep for days on end, working on a type of AI he named: VEGA during his free time. Olivia remembered Hayden saying it had an abbreviation, but never told her what it stood for. “It is only an AI, nothing more,” she recalls. Suspicious. But he’s her boss.

The older man began to work early with Olivia today, and of course, it meant the beginning of transporting more Argent towards earth. He started to cough a lot more frequently, no one paid to mind other than Pierce, Hayden still ignored it. 

“What percent are we at as of now?” He asked her, Olivia replied immediately, not looking up from her clipboard, “Eighty-three percent. We are almost finished with the full transportation of Argent,” Hayden coughed again, “We need to go… faster,” the man said, Olivia looked at him, and then moved her eyes to her work, “I’m certain we do. But we still have time, Hayden. Patience is a virtue”

“Agreed, but the fossil fuels on earth are drastically running out. We must rely on this source or else everything will be in ruin,” Olivia doesn’t know the context to his sentence, but she nods her head anyway. He crosses his arms, looking at the cargo being transported one by one, some containing pure argent energy in them. Hayden looks extremely tired than before. And he coughs a bit more. Covering his mouth this time, “The cargo has transported the majority of Argent to the ships. It’s at ninety-six percent, now,” Olivia said, and Hayden, still kept coughing. Then he stopped 

In his soft, fleshy hand, there was bright, red blood. Olivia’s crude behavior turned into a worried emotion as soon as Hayden started to bleed from his nose. More blood came out of his nose and mouth once Olivia called out his name, he touched his face and whimpered before falling unconscious. And Pierce caught him as the workers watched and came to help, he hiccuped despite fainting, more blood following suit, everyone whispered to one another about it before the medical doctors came by to take the director away, and, of course, Olivia couldn’t come.

Next week, she was given permission to visit Hayden. He was bedridden, the human man wore the clothing of a patient, and he was given water. Samuel looked extremely mad about this, and he seemed to be the least person to get mad. Olivia came in the room slowly, and sat down next to him, “Did they treat you well?” She asked him, Hayden nodded, drinking his water. “They’ll give you some food, and it’ll hopefully help you with your protein. I hope you’re alr-,”

“I was diagnosed with incurable brain cancer, Pierce,” Hayden coldly interrupted, “I have a couple of months to live. I should have told you sooner,” Olivia’s blood ran cold, she nearly knew it, “I- Hayden, I didn’t know. But why would you-,” Pierce was interrupted again, “Because, Olivia, I have no choice. Not in this fucking facility, not in this planet, nowhere. I couldn’t sleep nor eat for three days over this,” he clung to the thin blanket in anger, “This is what I get, I suppose,”

Olivia wasn’t phased by him, “What will you do?” She asked. Hayden breathed heavily, coughing, and then replying with, “I’ll die. You can take over my position when it ever happens,” her eyes soften, and she nods at the thought of it, “How will you work like this?” Olivia questions. 

“I don’t know,” He replied, and that was that. Olivia looks out the door from where she came from, saying, “I’ll direct on the Argent Tower, I’ll work on the Lazarus Labs during my break time,” she stood up and gave her boss a tight hug before departing, telling him, “It’s ok, everything will be fine,” and for the first time, Samuel smiles. She smiles back.

A month later, Olivia is diagnosed with scoliosis.

**Author's Note:**

> Hayden Marketable Plushie.
> 
> I have a tumblr now! @hellsinrepublica.
> 
> Don’t post much tho lol.


End file.
